I think our goal should be to get our first v3 port to the k8.
We need a good, simple, cheap, target board with really common IO (i.e. PATA, serial, etc.)
Any ideas?
ron
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
ron minnich wrote:
I think our goal should be to get our first v3 port to the k8.
DDR or DDR2 based?
We need a good, simple, cheap, target board with really common IO (i.e. PATA, serial, etc.)
Hmm I would say K8T890+VT8237 it works fine and I have the datasheets (even for onboard clockchip ;)
There are at least two boards: Asus A8V-E Deluxe - uwe has it - very similar to mine, just IRQ routing must be fixed.
Asus A8V-E SE - I have it. I checked ebay and there is 7 boards left.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-A8V-E-SE-VIA-K8T890-Dual-Core-939-Athlon-64-X2-NIB_...
($123)
I dont know if this is enough or not :/
But anyway,
Rudolf
On 02.02.2008 10:58, Rudolf Marek wrote:
ron minnich wrote:
I think our goal should be to get our first v3 port to the k8.
DDR or DDR2 based?
DDR init code is easier, but almost all current processors have DDR2 or DDR3.
We need a good, simple, cheap, target board with really common IO (i.e. PATA, serial, etc.)
Hmm I would say K8T890+VT8237 it works fine and I have the datasheets (even for onboard clockchip ;)
Great. Can we pick a socket AM2 board with these chips? Such boards are more readily available than socket 939 boards and usually they are also cheaper. A list of socket AM2 boards with K8T890/K8M890, availability and price in Germany follows:
Asrock ALiveSATA2-GLAN, K8T890 (50 €) Asus M2V, K8T890 (63 €, difficult to get) Asus M2V-X (unavailable) Asus M2V-TVM, K8M890 (49 €, difficult to get) Asus M2V-MX, K8M890 (43 €) Asus M2V-MX SE, K8M890 (38 €) Foxconn K8M890M2MA-RS2H, K8M890 (40 €) Foxconn K8M890M2MB-RS2H, K8M890 (36 €) MSI K9VGM-V, K8M890 (38 €)
There are at least two boards: Asus A8V-E Deluxe - uwe has it - very similar to mine, just IRQ routing must be fixed.
Asus A8V-E SE - I have it. I checked ebay and there is 7 boards left. ($123)
That's really expensive.
See above for my preferences. However, it would be great if we had a board supported in v2 before we try to port it to v3.
Regards, Carl-Daniel
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Hi all,
Great. Can we pick a socket AM2 board with these chips? Such boards are more readily available than socket 939 boards and usually they are also cheaper. A list of socket AM2 boards with K8T890/K8M890, availability and price in Germany follows:
Asrock ALiveSATA2-GLAN, K8T890 (50 €) Asus M2V, K8T890 (63 €, difficult to get) Asus M2V-X (unavailable) Asus M2V-TVM, K8M890 (49 €, difficult to get) Asus M2V-MX, K8M890 (43 €) Asus M2V-MX SE, K8M890 (38 €) Foxconn K8M890M2MA-RS2H, K8M890 (40 €) Foxconn K8M890M2MB-RS2H, K8M890 (36 €) MSI K9VGM-V, K8M890 (38 €)
Hmm M2V seems to use VT3351 aka K8T890CF (not CE). I checked some lspci dumps I found and this is bit different - perhaps I will need to contact VIA again and get the docs. This can take few months :/
I would suggest to stick with the boards which PCI id is
00:00.0 0600: 1106:0238 00:00.1 0600: 1106:1238 00:00.2 0600: 1106:2238 00:00.3 0600: 1106:3238 00:00.4 0600: 1106:4238 00:00.5 0800: 1106:5238 00:00.7 0600: 1106:7238 00:01.0 0604: 1106:b188
(K8T890CE variant)
I was unable to find the M2V-MX lspci -xxx dump on the net. Imho the chipset is called K8M890. But it seems that it is CE version + unichrome. It uses internal AGP and unichrome card. The AGP bridge may need some programming. Lets try to get some PCI dumps first. The southbridge is VT8237A it should be fairly similar same to VT8237R. I know already about one difference, hopefully not more will arise. Again, there is a chance to get the datasheets from VIA under NDA, but it takes some time to get them - in my case slightly less time I guess - I have already signed the papers and I think it can be extended to that chipsets too.
To sum it up, with VIA we may be able to get the datasheets, it just takes time. They also answered some of my technical questions and provided additional help and asked their engineers. All just takes a lot of time to get the answers ;)
That's really expensive.
It was "buy now" button.
See above for my preferences. However, it would be great if we had a board supported in v2 before we try to port it to v3.
Yep.
Rudolf
On 02.02.2008 14:19, Rudolf Marek wrote:
Great. Can we pick a socket AM2 board with these chips? Such boards are more readily available than socket 939 boards and usually they are also cheaper. A list of socket AM2 boards with K8T890/K8M890, availability and price in Germany follows:
Asrock ALiveSATA2-GLAN, K8T890 (50 Euro) Asus M2V, K8T890 (63 Euro, difficult to get) Asus M2V-X (unavailable) Asus M2V-TVM, K8M890 (49 Euro, difficult to get) Asus M2V-MX, K8M890 (43 Euro) Asus M2V-MX SE, K8M890 (38 Euro) Foxconn K8M890M2MA-RS2H, K8M890 (40 Euro) Foxconn K8M890M2MB-RS2H, K8M890 (36 Euro) MSI K9VGM-V, K8M890 (38 Euro)
Hmm M2V seems to use VT3351 aka K8T890CF (not CE). I checked some lspci dumps I found and this is bit different - perhaps I will need to contact VIA again and get the docs. This can take few months :/
That's unfortunate. Then again, the M2V is difficult to get, so it probably is not a viable candidate.
I would suggest to stick with the boards which PCI id is
00:00.0 0600: 1106:0238 00:00.1 0600: 1106:1238 00:00.2 0600: 1106:2238 00:00.3 0600: 1106:3238 00:00.4 0600: 1106:4238 00:00.5 0800: 1106:5238 00:00.7 0600: 1106:7238 00:01.0 0604: 1106:b188
(K8T890CE variant)
I was unable to find the M2V-MX lspci -xxx dump on the net. Imho the chipset is called K8M890. But it seems that it is CE version + unichrome. It uses internal AGP and unichrome card. The AGP bridge may need some programming. Lets try to get some PCI dumps first. The southbridge is VT8237A it should be fairly similar same to VT8237R.
Good.
I know already about one difference, hopefully not more will arise. Again, there is a chance to get the datasheets from VIA under NDA, but it takes some time to get them - in my case slightly less time I guess - I have already signed the papers and I think it can be extended to that chipsets too.
That would be great! We will need support for newer VIA chipsets anyway, so if you're 2 months ahead with requests, supporting the K8T890CF and K8T890CE+Unichrome should be attainable until May 2008.
To sum it up, with VIA we may be able to get the datasheets, it just takes time. They also answered some of my technical questions and provided additional help and asked their engineers. All just takes a lot of time to get the answers ;)
Good to know that they cooperate.
That's really expensive.
It was "buy now" button.
My list mentioned boards available from German online stores, so it would be mostly equivalent to "buy now" at ebay. By the way, the MSI K9VGM-V is available in the US from Newegg for $35. MSI have been cooperative in the past when trying to port their boards, so this may be a good choice.
Regards, Carl-Daniel
On 01/02/08 20:49 -0800, ron minnich wrote:
I think our goal should be to get our first v3 port to the k8.
We need a good, simple, cheap, target board with really common IO (i.e. PATA, serial, etc.)
Any ideas?
How about the Serengeti-Cheetah on SimNow? Thats a free platform that everybody can use (and the new public release fixes some of the bugs that we have discovered).
Jordan
On Feb 4, 2008 12:54 PM, Jordan Crouse jordan.crouse@amd.com wrote:
How about the Serengeti-Cheetah on SimNow? Thats a free platform that everybody can use (and the new public release fixes some of the bugs that we have discovered).
is the v3 support for this in buildrom? That could be a first step for this target.
ron
On 06/02/08 04:06 -0800, ron minnich wrote:
On Feb 4, 2008 12:54 PM, Jordan Crouse jordan.crouse@amd.com wrote:
How about the Serengeti-Cheetah on SimNow? Thats a free platform that everybody can use (and the new public release fixes some of the bugs that we have discovered).
is the v3 support for this in buildrom? That could be a first step for this target.
We can easily make it happen. Where by we, I mean one of Myles, or Ward or myself, though if you wait for me, I won't be back in the office before the 19th.
Jordan
OK. let's do it. Goal for linuxbi-- er, coreboot summit at the end of march is to have v3 booting on simnow. I will, meanwhile, try to find a friendly vendor who can get low cost boards to the coreboot community.
I hope one of the buildrom triumvirate can set up buildrom w/simnow sometime this or next week :-)
I tend to lean against via due to the need for chipset NDA. I tend to lean toward AMD chipsets for the first board. Any suggestions there?
Thanks, Jordan, for the great idea. Thanks, AMD, for simnow and your continued support for this project. AMD is a great company to work with.
thanks
ron
On 06/02/08 13:28 -0800, ron minnich wrote:
OK. let's do it. Goal for linuxbi-- er, coreboot summit at the end of march is to have v3 booting on simnow. I will, meanwhile, try to find a friendly vendor who can get low cost boards to the coreboot community.
I hope one of the buildrom triumvirate can set up buildrom w/simnow sometime this or next week :-)
I tend to lean against via due to the need for chipset NDA. I tend to lean toward AMD chipsets for the first board. Any suggestions there?
Unfortunately not. The 8111 chipset on the Serengeti Cheetah is open, but they aren't available any more in real life. Everything else is still closed, but hopefully not for ever.
Jordan
On Feb 6, 2008 2:22 PM, Jordan Crouse jordan.crouse@amd.com wrote:
Unfortunately not. The 8111 chipset on the Serengeti Cheetah is open, but they aren't available any more in real life. Everything else is still closed, but hopefully not for ever.
we can get v3 up on simnow with old chipset, I am hoping to find an amd-based board with newer chipsets.
ron
On 06.02.2008 23:23, ron minnich wrote:
On Feb 6, 2008 2:22 PM, Jordan Crouse jordan.crouse@amd.com wrote:
Unfortunately not. The 8111 chipset on the Serengeti Cheetah is open, but they aren't available any more in real life. Everything else is still closed, but hopefully not for ever.
we can get v3 up on simnow with old chipset, I am hoping to find an amd-based board with newer chipsets.
The problem with SimNow is that it only works on x86-64 machines. I do all of my development on my x86 (32bit) laptop, so if I ever want to test an x86-64 v3 port, I have to get an extra machine anyway. Hm.
I'd really like to have us port existing support for a chipset from v2 to v3, so we can compare settings in case something goes wrong. Now for choosing the chipset: - Nvidia is pretty much ruled out if we want any chance of data sheet access. - SIS have contributed code, but I don't know about data sheets. Besides that, it is very difficult to buy a board with any SIS chipset (in Germany). - VIA is a possible target because we already have some code in v2 and at least one person has access to their data sheets, but they require an NDA. Plus, boards with the chipset are rather easy to buy. - AMD may work out in the next few months... RS690 data sheets (register reference guide) are publicly available, but SB600 is pretty much secret.
Marc: Any idea whether the process of publishing the SB600 data sheets is handled by the same persons who are currently occupied with cleaning AMD/ATI Radeon data sheets?
Regards, Carl-Daniel
Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
- AMD may work out in the next few months... RS690 data sheets (register
reference guide) are publicly available, but SB600 is pretty much secret.
We want to, but I don't know if we will have it done by the summit.
Marc: Any idea whether the process of publishing the SB600 data sheets is handled by the same persons who are currently occupied with cleaning AMD/ATI Radeon data sheets?
I think it is the same person and they are very busy with lots of things we want released. Marc
If we want real hardware it is probably going to have to be a cheap via board?
ron
On 07.02.2008 17:06, ron minnich wrote:
If we want real hardware it is probably going to have to be a cheap via board?
I guess so. We may need to find another person willing to get a VIA NDA in case we run into trouble and/or we want to rewrite the v2 code when porting it to v3.
Regards, Carl-Daniel
On Feb 7, 2008 7:33 PM, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger < c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006@gmx.net> wrote:
On 07.02.2008 17:06, ron minnich wrote:
If we want real hardware it is probably going to have to be a cheap via
board?
I guess so. We may need to find another person willing to get a VIA NDA in case we run into trouble and/or we want to rewrite the v2 code when porting it to v3.
Regards, Carl-Daniel
I'd be willing, if they'd ever get back to me.
-Corey
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
I asked my contact for K8M890/K8T890CF datasheets (what needs to be done to get them) already.
I will let know when there is something new. In the meanwhile someone can get K8M890 lspci -xxx ? /me is quite curious.
Rudolf
I hope one of the buildrom triumvirate can set up buildrom w/simnow sometime this or next week :-)
Here's the patch to add buildrom support for serengeti_cheetah. It's not much, because there's no actual support in v3. I'll add the defconfig and the patch for the simulator (if it's still needed) when that's done.
Signed-off-by: Myles Watson myles@pel.cs.byu.edu
Myles
On Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 03:58:55PM -0700, Myles Watson wrote:
I hope one of the buildrom triumvirate can set up buildrom w/simnow sometime this or next week :-)
Here's the patch to add buildrom support for serengeti_cheetah. It's not much, because there's no actual support in v3. I'll add the defconfig and the patch for the simulator (if it's still needed) when that's done.
Signed-off-by: Myles Watson myles@pel.cs.byu.edu
Acked-by: Ward Vandewege ward@gnu.org
Here's the patch to add buildrom support for serengeti_cheetah. It's
not
much, because there's no actual support in v3. I'll add the defconfig
and
the patch for the simulator (if it's still needed) when that's done.
Signed-off-by: Myles Watson myles@pel.cs.byu.edu
Acked-by: Ward Vandewege ward@gnu.org
Thanks, Rev 106
Myles
-
Carl-Daniel Hailfinger -
Corey Osgood -
Jordan Crouse -
Marc Jones -
Myles Watson -
ron minnich -
Rudolf Marek -
Ward Vandewege